If I Could Turn Back Time
by KaleidoscopeVintage
Summary: Hermione has a mishap with her timeturner, and finds herself in Marauderera Hogwarts. With the wanting to get back to her friends, she falls unexpectedly head over heels for one Marauder, and doesn't really know what to do about it.
1. A History of Magic

Hermione rubbed her eyes, yawned and abruptly looked at her watch.

Her eyes widened in mortification.

'2:15!' she exclaimed, groaning. 'Oh no, I've missed Transfiguration!'

Hermione sighed. All that business with the time-turner and so many lessons were really making her tired. Then she had a quick idea.

"I'll go back to just before Transfiguration started, and then I'll be able to do the lesson after all.'

She reached into her satchel and took out the gleaming, gold, interesting-looking time-turner and slung it carefully around her neck, removing her hair from underneath it.

She looked at the dials. One turn should do it…..

But then something went horribly wrong. After she tuned the dial once, it continued to spin around and around. Hermione's stomach lurched. What if she landed in the Middle Ages? Or at the beginning of time?! She had even forgotten her wand!

But to her relief and surprise, she opened her eyes to look around and saw that she was stationed in Hogwarts – and it didn't look too long ago, either.

'Looking for something?' a male voice said, coming from behind her.

She spun around to see a black-haired bespectacled boy whom she knew very well….

'Harry!' she cried uncertainly, and began to become more uncertain as the boy's eyebrows shot further up his forehead.

'What, me? Err…no…I'm James,' he said awkwardly, then adding, 'Nice to meet you. And you are?' before holding out his hand.

Hermione couldn't believe her eyes. Of all the time periods to land in, she had to find herself in that of the Marauders. _Ah well_, she thought, _at least I'll know some people. _

'Hermione,' she replied cautiously, reaching out and shaking James's hand. 'Hermione Granger.

Just as Hermione had predicted would probably happen, and extremely handsome, dark-haired boy, a plump, flushed boy with protruding teeth and a shy-looking, cute boy with an air of intelligence about him had appeared by James's side.

'Who's the girl?' Sirius inquired, his eyes roving over Hermione, as if deciding if she was worth any effort.

'This is Hermione Granger. Met her just now – look a bit lost, see. Are you new, Hermione? Because you're in Gryffindor,' he pointed to the crest on her robes, 'and I've never seen you before.'

'Yeah, I am. I used to go to Beauxbatons,' she said, improvising wildly.

'Oh,' Sirius said, speaking up and fixing his grey eyes on Hermione again, and she couldn't help gazing at him and noticing how different he was. He looked so much better, and more alive. Azkaban had really done horrors to him.

'Oh, well, yes, anyway,' Hermione interrupted the brewing silence, 'I was wondering where Professor Dumbledore was. I need a word with him.'

'Oh yeah, sure, we'll take you there,' said Sirius coolly, then he paused, 'what year are you in?'

'Fifth year,' she replied, deciding to tell the truth. The foursome nodded rather happily.

'That's great!' gabbled Peter, as the five of them walked down a corridor. 'We're ion that year too. You might be in our classes.'

Hermione smiled at him weakly, and couldn't help noticing that Remus remained rather quiet.

'So…who are you three?' she asked, then managed to stop herself saying, 'as if I don't already know.'

'Sirius Black,' said Sirius, grinning. Obviously, he had decided that Hermione seemed somewhat worthwhile.

'Peter Pettigrew,' stuttered Peter.

Hermione looked expectantly at Remus.

'Remus Lupin,' he mumbled. Hermione guessed from his tired, pale visage that it had been a full moon recently.

'Well, here we are,' said James, gesturing to the headmaster's office, after what seemed like not much time. 'We'll see you in the common room – if you haven't already got anywhere else to be, that is.' And with that, all four Marauders turned on their heels and marched down the hall.

'Thank you!' called Hermione, and Sirius looked round and grinned, showing off his pearly-white and suspiciously canine-looking teeth.

Hermione knocked nervously on the door.

'Come in,' came a serene reply, and Hermione swung open the heavy door and stepped in.

'How may I help you?' asked a remarkably younger-looking Dumbledore who was stroking Fawkes the phoenix.

'I've had a problem,' began Hermione, and Dumbledore continued to look at her intently whilst she explained her story.

'And your time-turner, Miss Granger?'

'Broken,' groaned Hermione, and as the horrible wave of realisation swept over her she felt hot, distracting tears begin to form in her eyes.

'Well, we must see to that immediately, so that we can get you back to your time in which you are loved, you have friends and family…' Hermione gulped, '…but in the meantime, you must stay here, in the Gryffindor girls' fifth-year common room.'

Hermione looked up. 'How long will that be?' she questioned hopefully.

'Oh, I cannot say,' replied Dumbledore quietly, 'but let us hope for the best.'

An hour later, Hermione found herself enter the common room. She stifled a laugh. After all these years, it still looked oddly the same.

'Hey, Hermione!' yelled James, and Hermione went over to join them.

'Hi,' she said, before taking a seat next to Remus, who was reading _A History of Magic._

She gasped appreciatively, and Remus looked up.

'I absolutely _love _that book,' she exclaimed animatedly, letting her interests run away with her. Remus, who seemed rather astonished at this friendly greeting, surprised himself by feeling his exhausted face break into a warm smile, and his face getting hotter too – unfortunately.

'Me too,' he replied, forgetting his inhibitions for a few solitary seconds.

'I always admire how Bathilda Bagshot describes Hogwarts in it,' Hermione said, excitement rising in her voice. Then she added, 'Every time I read it.'

'How many times _have _you read it?'

'Umm….53.'

Remus gaped at her. 'Me too!' he laughed.

'I never had you down as the bookish type, Hermione,' interrupted Sirius, looking over at the gleeful pair.

'Well you had me down wrong, didn't you?' said Hermione, not insolently, but flushed with the merriment of finding somebody she could identify with.

Sirius blinked, but decided not to read into it, and went back to discussing his next prank of Snivellus with James and Peter as Hermione and Remus continued to talk books.


	2. Wolfsbane

The next morning, Hermione was awoken by some Weird Sisters song, which she assumed was an alarm. She rubbed her eyes lazily, and gently sat up to see three other girls next to her doing the same.

Hermione had faced an inquisition about herself the previous evening, and learnt that these girls were Stephanie McKinnon, Claudelia Lockhart, and of course, Lily Evans.

'Morning, Hermione,' called Lily from the bed next to her. She was leaning on her elbow and facing Hermione. 'How was your first night?'

'Oh, great, thanks,' lied Hermione. She had been having disturbing dreams of her, Harry and Ron being chased by a giant copy of _A History of Magic_, and after waking from that one having another about how she was back in her own time with all her friends and at a Quidditch match.

Hermione threw back the covers, stood up and stretched. 'What's the time?' she asked nobody in particular.

'7:20,' Claudelia informed her. It had been her alarm that went off. 'Breakfast's at 8.'

'Oh, okay, thanks,' said Hermione, making her way over to her wardrobe, and began to lay out her clothes for the day over the bed, which she had borrowed mostly from Lily and her roommates.

At five minutes to 8, when all four girls were washed and dressed, they walked down to the Great Hall. Hermione said a quick goodbye to the girls (as Lily did not want to sit anywhere remotely near James) and saw a spare seat next to the Marauders in which she placed herself.

'Morning, Hermione,' said Sirius playfully. 'Good night?'

'Oh yeah, great thanks,' Hermione repeated what she had said earlier. 'And all of you?' she said, peering down the table and smiling at all of them mildly.

'Yes,' Peter squeaked.

'Lovely, thanks,' Sirius grinned.

'Pretty good,' agreed James.

Remus blushed hotly when he saw Hermione's long-eyelashed, puppy-brown eyes fell onto his face. This didn't go unnoticed by Sirius, who frowned at him irritatedly.

Remus muttered something inaudible and hastily began to gnaw at a piece of well-buttered toast.

After breakfast, the first class they all had together with the Slytherins was Potions. They were being taught by a teacher Hermione didn't know, but had heard of, called Professor Slughorn. She couldn't remember where she'd heard of him, but then she thought she must have read it somewhere.

'Now today, class,' bellowed the balding, straw-haired teacher, 'we are going to be brewing a very difficult, new-fangled potion – just to test your greatest abilities—' his eyes twinkled as he looked at Lily, whom Hermione guessed must have excelled at Potions '…and that is the most recently invented, complicated one of Wolfsbane.'

Hermione snorted quietly. It may be new in this time, but she had long since dealt with concocting a Wolfsbane potion.

'Right,' continued Slughorn, 'can anyone tell me who a Wolfsbane potion is aimed at, and what it is used for?'

As a force of habit, Hermione's hand plunged straight into the air, and a look of sheer desperation reigned on her face. Slughorn looked expectantly at Lily, whose hand remained limply by her side, and then was slightly astonished to see Hermione's shoot up so swiftly.

'Miss…err…'

'Granger,' corrected Hermione, 'a Wolfsbane potion is taken optionally by a man or woman who suffers from lycanthropy, and wishes to remain in their human mind on the night of the full moon. If they drink a goblet-full of the potion it enables them to control their human thoughts and feelings whilst still enduring the transformation.'

After she had finished, her voice seemed to echo around the spacious classroom, and the rest of the class started at her, awed. She looked at Remus, who had gone noticeably paler, but had the same spellbound expression on his face as the rest of the class, including Slughorn. Hermione looked around again. There was one particularly greasy-haired, sallow-faced and hook-nosed boy with a nasty expression that looked like he had been sucking on lemons. And then Hermione realised. Severus Snape, Potions master at future Hogwarts – and he didn't like to be outshone – especially by a Gryffindor Muggle-born new girl.

'Excellent, Miss Granger,' said Slughorn suddenly, looking at her with a new kind of respect, 'an answer copied almost word for word from _A Thousand Potions and Antidotes: The New Editions_. Ten points to Gryffindor.' He cleared his throat. 'Right, now, we will be brewing the Wolfsbane potion in groups of two. I will call out your names…'

Hermione lost her concentration on what Slughorn was saying. She had suddenly been reminded of when she was back in future Hogwarts with Harry and Ron, in Snape's lesson, making Polyjuice Potion. Ron had accidentally dropped one of Hermione's hairs into the concoction, and slowly transformed into her double.

A happy smiled played on her lips, in spite of how much she was missing them.

Her ears pricked up suddenly when she heard her name

'And finally, Miss Granger and Mr. Lupin…ah, yes…that should be all.'

Hermione looked over tentatively at Remus, who was fiddling with his Potions book. She guessed that he had not heard his name and was deep in thought about his lycanthropy, as she was about her old friends whom she was missing terribly.

She decided to surprise him, so collected her things and sat in the empty seat beside him. He looked up as she sat down.

'Errm…hello?' said Remus.

'Hi,' said Hermione. 'Let's begin.'

Remus had no idea what she was talking about, so she explained briefly, and they both collected the ingredients and followed the instructions.

Twenty minutes later, Remus asked her, 'have…have you made Wolfsbane before?' as his eyes uncertainly followed her hands unscrew the cap off a murky-looking, dark substance.

'What? Oh yes, many times,' she replied absently, pouring in the murky-looking powder labelled _Essence of Groggenroot. _Severus Snape looked at Hermione and Remus busying themselves with the potion with an unattractive look of greed and vengeance on his bitter face, and whilst Hermione had turned around briefly to compliment Remus on his detailed, informative note-taking, slipped a glowing green liquid into the almost finished potion, At once, it changed from a smoking red colour to icy blue with a disappointing fizzle. Hermione whipped around, and both her and her Potions partner gasped loudly.

'HE DID IT!' screamed Sirius, jumping on top of his table and pointing ferociously at Snape, startling Claudelia, his partner.

Sirius had been watching Remus and Hermione for most of the past half hour intensely, and had seen Snape spike their potion.

Snape was trying his best to look indignantly innocent.

'HE DID IT!' continued Sirius. 'HE PUT THA GREEN STUFF IN MOONY AND HERMIONE'S POTION!'

Slughorn sighed impatiently. 'Sit down, Black. Now,' he began, 'whilst I'm sure you didn't see Mr. Snape do such a thing, Black —'Slughorn sniffed the blue potion and recoiled disgustedly, '—I'm afraid to say that Miss Granger and Mr Lupin's potion has gone… err…horribly wrong.' Slughorn smiled bracingly at Hermione and Remus, and went to visit Lily, and beamed. 'And Miss Evans has done it again! Another perfect potion! Well done, Lily, fifty points to Gryffindor…'

Remus and Hermione looked at each other, deflated. Sirius was seething, and not taking his eyes off Snape, who didn't look exactly entirely pleased that it was Lily who had caught Slughorn's eyes and not him.

'But look on the bright side, we have fifty more points for Gryffindor,' muttered Hermione, and Remus looked at her, until his face had gradually altered into a genuine smile. The edges of his cornflower-blue eyes crinkled adorably.

It was then that Hermione realised she may well be in love.


	3. Back to the Future

_BACK IN THE PRESENT TIME_

It was Transfiguration, and Ron was gazing absent-mindedly out of the side window of the classroom, drooling slightly. Harry, however, was just staring blankly at his textbook, as if he expected it to randomly jump up and start doing a tap dance.

Professor McGonagall suddenly stopped discussing the Animagus transformation and looked straight at the distracted boys.

'Weasley, Potter!' she snapped sharply, making them come out of their daydreams and flinch, then continued in a slightly softer tone, 'see my after the lesson.'

Ron groaned, but Harry did not have the energy to do so. He had no idea what McGonagall was lecturing the class about, but one thing he did know very well was that both he and Hermione terribly.

They had no clue where she'd gone. Two weeks ago, she had been sleepy after Charms, so went back to the common room for a brief nap before Transfiguration started – or so she said. When Hermione hadn't appeared in Transfiguration, Ron and Harry had started to get suspicious. Hermione never missed a class! After the lesson, they had gone back to check on her – but she was gone. All that remained of her were her wand, satchel and the glimmering remains of something very gold – and broken. Hogwarts had been searched. Her home had been searched. Most of England had been searched. But no trace of Hermione's whereabouts had been discovered.

Nobody had found her body, but that didn't stop the annoying voice in Harry's head that was always trying to get him down and destroy his hope saying: _She's dead, Harry. Dead. Where else would she be? Maybe she fell through the Veil, like Sirius._

But thinking of Sirius only made him feel a whole lot worse. He cursed himself for it. All the people he loved were slipping through his fingers like sand. Maybe one day he'd wake up and Ron and Cho would have mysteriously disappeared too.

He shivered, and that brought him back into reality to see that the lesson had ended, his classmates were packing up and McGonagall was beckoning to him and Ron with a wrinkled, tight-skinned finger.

He nudged Ron gently to disturb his reminiscing. His head jerked and his flaming red hair flopped over his eyes. He got up slowly and gradually as if it was too much effort and was therefore paining him.

When they reached the front of the class, McGonagall began to lecture them.

'Look, boys,' she snapped, 'I know you're missing Miss Granger, as are a lot of other people, but they are learning to deal with it! You can't just zone out during all of your lessons – your performance is increasingly becoming worse! You have OWLs coming up soon, for goodness'….'

At that moment, Ron stopped listening. He knew his school work performance was decreasing. He knew he was going to get very little, if any, OWLs. He knew he would kill himself for it later on, but right now, as the worry and curiosity and sorrow bit at him, he really didn't care.

He was sure nobody was feeling as awful as he was. Every time somebody said her name, or anything that reminded him of her, his throat would feel closed off, as if it was clamped shut, and his face would ache from holding back tears. If she really was dead, as mostly everyone else had taken to assuming, then he would never get to express how he truly felt about her.

'…and Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak to the both of you,' finished McGonagall, who had been talking the whole time. Harry perked up instantly.

'Why?' he asked immediately.

'I don't know,' she said tartly. 'But he told me to inform you that the password is _I enjoy Citrus Drops._'

'Great,' said Harry bitterly, and he grabbed hold of Ron's shoulders irately and marched himself, and Ron, out of the classroom. He had no idea why he was suddenly so irritated. He was probably just trying to convert his emotions from grief to anger.

When they reached Dumbledore's office, Harry muttered the password and both him and Ron stepped in.

'Ah, good evening, Harry, Mr. Weasley,' said Dumbledore serenely, looking over his half-moon spectacles. 'Mr. Lupin and I have a matter of great importance to inform you of.' Dumbledore indicated to Lupin, whom they had not noticed until now, who was pale and delicate-looking under the bright light in the far corner.

'Well, I should hope so,' retorted Harry defiantly. 'I mean, Hermione's been gone for two weeks, and Ron and I expected you to have some kind of idea now.' Dumbledore looked at him impassively.

'W-what?' squeaked Ron. 'I…I never…the news…it does concern Hermione…doesn't it?'

Dumbledore smiled. He was amused that whilst Harry had jumped to such a quick conclusion, Ron was still precarious.

'Yes,' he replied simply, and stood up, clearly about to make his point. 'As you are aware, forgive me for telling you of what you already know, that Miss Granger has mysteriously disappeared. All that was found of her last was her wand, her bag, and this.' Dumbledore held up the shattered golden pieces, of which he seemed to summon out of thin air, and laid the, out on his desk in front of Harry and Ron.

Harry shot a sideways glance at Lupin. His complexion was quite in contrast to what it had been before. He now looked uncomfortable and flushed.

'Look at these pieces,' instructed Dumbledore, gesturing to the objects on his desk. 'Do they look familiar to you?'

Both Harry and Ron picked up one of the pieces and examined them. Harry blinked confusedly, as he could not detect the secret identity of this substance. Ron, however, gasped dramatically.

'It's…it's…it's a time-turner!' he exclaimed excitedly, jumping up out of his seat and practically doing a dance. 'Hermione's…Hermione's not dead! **HERMIONE'S ALIVE!**'

'Please calm down, Mr. Weasley,' said Dumbledore, although Harry had noticed that his bright blue eyes were sparkling and his face hinted a smile.

'That is certainly what my suspicions are, yes. Miss Granger has once again been taking too many classes for her own good this year, and as they did to her all those to years ago, they once again exhaust her. My guess is that she went back to rest before one of her classes began, and slept too long…'

'YES! YES!' screamed Ron delightedly. 'Yes! She told us she was tired, and went back for a sleep before Transfiguration…'

'If you'll let me finish, Mr. Weasley,' interrupted Dumbledore, and Ron went red and muttered an apology. 'As I was saying, Miss Granger must have overslept and awoken in the middle of Transfiguration class, as you say. She must have wanted to attend the class not to offend Minerva, and removed the time-turner from her satchel. But, carelessly and rather uncharacteristically if I may say so myself, she forgot to equip herself with her wand and bag, and activated the time-turner. However, the time-turner, being faulty with age, must have spun around a few too many times, and taken her, and not itself, as it was too weak to do so and barely able to transport her, to another time period. Now, what I could not deduce from the situation was what time period Miss Granger had travelled to – whether she had gone forward or back in time. Wanting to travel to the past, it was most likely she had gone there, but not entirely certain as the device she was using was so destroyed and could have easily taken her to the future. No, this is where Remus comes in,' said Dumbledore, looking over at Lupin. Both Harry and Ron looked at him too, and it was undeniably noticeable how wretched he felt now. His arms were draped protectively over his stomach as if he felt queasy, and his face was anxious yet embarrassed.

'I met Remus outside my office early this morning,' began Dumbledore again. 'He was quite distressed, telling me that he had had sudden unexpected recollections. Remus, if you would care to elaborate.'

All eyes were fixed on Lupin now. Harry leaned in curiously. He could not see where this was going, but he wanted to know more than anything. Now that he knew Hermione was alive, he had deemed it safe enough to explore the details of her disappearance.

'Memories,' muttered Remus, and almost seconds after he had said it, a pained expression fleetingly crossed his face. 'They just keep coming. More and more. I've never explored them before, yet I feel as if I've known them all my life. They've been coming for about two weeks now, interestingly since Hermione went missing. I was in my room in headquarters, when suddenly a sight flashed before my mind,' then with a great strain, he admitted, 'Eyes. Brown eyes. Puppy-brown, if you must. A girl shockingly familiar standing if front of me, next to James. I couldn't remember her name. Harriet, I thought, but it didn't sound correct. Then I thought, Helen, but no, that didn't seem to fit either. She wanted to have a word with Dumbledore. And then no more of that memory was admitted to me. I calmly went back to my studies that night, not curious or suspicious at all. She was probably just a girl I had met in my years at Hogwarts, or had passed in Hogsmeade, or served Firewhisky once at The Three Broomsticks. But that's where I was wrong. Every time I would sit down or be in a quiet space and allow my thoughts to wander, I would see her face, laughing pleasantly or studying with me in the library, or discussing books,' Remus sniffed and cast a reminiscent look in the direction of nothing in particular, 'but I did not realise who she was until I saw the book…_A History of Magic_…her name was printed on the front cover, you see…Hermione Granger.' Remus sighed, shakily. Dumbledore, however, looked completely nonplussed. Harry was indeed wondering why Lupin looked so uncomfortable about saying this. All he had done was admit that he knew where Hermione was, and that she had entered his childhood and was now part of his memories. Now that they knew where she was, they could get her back. Shouldn't they all be rejoicing?

Fortunately for Harry, Ron voiced his thoughts. 'But that's good, isn't it? Can't we just go get her back?'

Dumbledore looked at him. 'Unfortunately that was the last time-turner that we are aware of the location of, Ronald – and it looks far beyond repair. But if you two are up to creating a new fashion of limited wizarding time travel, with a little assistance from myself and Mr. Lupin, then certainly we can work towards transporting Miss Granger back in the era she belongs.' The smile on Dumbledore's face was demolished almost immediately as he looked to see Remus shaking his head exasperatedly. 'Why, what bothers you, Remus?' he asked in a voice that hinted something, but Harry wasn't quite sure what.

Remus looked up, frowning, 'I did not confess this to you, Albus. Ron, you misunderstand me. I cannot explain how, or why, but Hermione meeting the Marauders has changed _everything_. It was extremely dangerous for Hermione to venture out to my teenage years, and it was rather silly of her to be taking advantage of where she stood. Bringing her back to the present day would cause endless problems, but, for another reason I cannot tell you, we should not leave her there, as something dire may happen. I predict it. I mean, what about Nymphadora?'

'What about Tonks?' asked Harry cynically, but everybody ignored him.

'Dire?!' squeaked Ron worriedly, but Dumbledore waved him down.

'Remus,' he said shortly and rather impatiently too. 'Is it a question of 'cannot' or 'shall not'? Remus's eyes widened. At last Harry understood. But Ron, obviously, did not. His confused expression said it all.

Harry did not want to hear anymore of Hermione's antics – but yet, the depressing voice in his head was morbidly curious – and somehow he knew it was coming anyway, no matter how much Lupin tried to postpone it.

'I…I didn't mean…not my fault…please, stop it…more things, they could change. With all my friends. And every time I'm with her…Sirius…he looks at me…like…like he's _so _angry…' stammered Lupin miserably.

'Stop _what_?' cried Ron, who seemed to be under the impression that they were all in danger.

'To stop the love,' finished Dumbledore, no sign of shock or disapproval on his face. A tiny groan escaped Remus.

And finally the penny dropped.

If Ron looked mortified when he had discovered that Hermione was missing, it was a cheerful look compared to what one he was expressing now.


	4. Because It's Warm by the Fire

**Author's Note**

**Disclaimer: I forgot to put this in before, but I'm not J.K. Rowling, am not affiliated with her, and do not own any characters in this story apart from Claudelia**** and Stephanie (though I borrowed her surname off of J.K.) .**

**Author's Note: In the last chapter, I wrote 'mollified' instead of 'mortified' at the end. Complete typo. But it's fixed now .**

**All reviewers: Thanks so much everybody who reviewed! I'd really like so more though...I need to know where I can improve and bla bla bla…so please take the time to write one . **

Remus sat in the library, thinking.

It had been four weeks now, since he had met Hermione – yet it seemed like he had known her forever, as she was a really fantastic person and liked exactly the same things as he did – seriously. There was never a time when she had been even slightly horrible to him, or anybody else for that matter – not even Snape. She was just so intelligent, selfless, kind, finny, sweet, pretty...oh, if he had the time or a hiding place to put it, he could go on writing that list forever. He guessed that the things he liked most about her, though, were that she was exactly like him, bookish, slightly too much of a 'goody-goody' (as Padfoot and Prongs had referred to him as once or twice), studious and reserved most of the time, and that she actually genuinely _liked _him. She was the first girl to ever willingly spend spare time with him (apart from his mother). Obviously, she wasn't the first _person _to like him apart from his family, as the Marauders ad been fine with inducting him into their little group.

It was just…he felt that she was really…special. It wasn't really something he had felt before.

'Nice book there, Moony,' commented Sirius slyly, interrupting Remus's daydream. He had not realised that the Marauders had been standing behind him and observing him for the past five minutes. He then looked at his book. He could not remember the title of it, but one thing that did seem to register in his unusually vacant brain was that it was upside-down - unless, for some odd reason, he had been trying to unscramble some sort of code some thirty minutes previously.

Remus looked up at his friends sheepishly.

'What's up with you recently, Moony?' asked James in a false-serious voice, taking a seat next to Remus and peering into Remus's electric blue eye. 'Are you ill?'

'Err…no, thank you, I'm quite fine, Dr. Prongs,' replied Remus firmly, drawing back from James quickly as if James could understand what was happening with him by looking into his eyes.

'Yeah, sure you are,' said James suspiciously, narrowing his own eyes. 'You know what, Padfoot? I think Moony's got it bad.'

'Really, now,' Sirius said slowly. 'I wonder who with.'

'Don't play dumb with me, Mr. Padfoot. You know perfectly well.'

Sirius raised his eyebrows and grinned. 'Do I now?'

'I do not…_love_ anybody,' protested Remus, choking out the word 'love' reluctantly.

'Hermione Granger!' gasped Peter, putting a hand to his open mouth. 'The new girl!'

Something on Sirius's face changed. It seemed as if the contrast of it had become less pronounced and all his features blended together darkly. Nobody else had noticed it though. They were all looking at him.

Remus gritted his teeth. He had blushed, much to his annoyance, but before he could utter any more words of denial, Madam Pince, the librarian, came storming up to them around a corner of bookshelves.

'SSSSSSSHHHH!' she thundered, ironically loudly. 'OUT! _Out_! All of you – such noise is not permitted in the Hogwarts library!'

After they were shooed out rather violently by the fuming librarian, nowhere apart from the Gryffindor common room sprung to mind, so they all made their way over there, dully.

They found Hermione sitting by the crackling fire on the rug, in the middle of writing an epic essay whilst talking to Lily about Potions.

'…It really is my favourite subject,' Lily was saying.

'Hmm…' replied Hermione thoughtfully. 'I certainly like it more now that we don't have Professor Sn – I mean, a horrible teacher from Beauxbatons.'

'All right, Evans?'

Remus heard a voice say that was unmistakably James's. He had an expression on that he probably thought looked cool and aloof, but really it was like he had been kissed by a Dementor. Lily was looking up with a distasteful look on her face, having only just realised she was within his company.

'Bye, Hermione,' whispered Lily instantly, and she made a big show of her departure, swinging her long, glossy red hair over her shoulders and sauntering off to where Claudelia and Stephanie were playing a game of Exploding Snap. The look James was sporting reminded Remus fleetingly of a goldfish.

'Hellooooo,' called Sirius playfully in James's ear. 'Earth to Prongs.'

Whilst all this was happening, Remus had been looking at Hermione. A realisation that he had seen her somewhere before they met was rocketing around in his brain. When he thought he was about to remember where he'd seen her, Peter spoke up, preventing his pondering.

'She ignored you,' he squeaked, loudly and rather tactlessly. 'Again.'

'That's not very nice, Peter,' retorted Hermione. Remus stared at her. She was doing it again – being nice. Her volumised curly hair was resting lazily on her shoulders, her rose-pink lips were pursed and her neatly-shaped eyebrows were furrowed. He thought she looked extremely beguiling – somehow.

Hermione spoke up again, 'I'm sure Lily will understand how much you care for her someday, James –' she paused for a short time, '– maybe you just need to act normal and do more sensitive things. Treat her a bit better and possibly cut Snape some slack. They are friends, you know, and she doesn't really appreciate you hexing her friends. You also don't need to show off, just be yourself.'

'Wow. Thanks, Hermione,' said James gratefully. 'I wish Padfoot could give me that kind of advice. That's Sirius – by the way.'

'Oh, that's okay,' she said, smiling.

Without thinking, Remus took a seat next to Hermione on the rug. He felt warm and cosy next to the fire – or maybe because he was so close to Hermione.

'Hi, Remus,' she said casually, putting a Potions textbook back in her bag.

'Hey,' he replied, also trying to be casual, but then he swallowed nervously.

'Well, I think I'd better go after Lily,' James said, smiling bracingly.

Sirius snorted. 'I think you'd better not,' he said, 'but this is boring. Let's go watch that Ravenclaw Quidditch practice, or sneak into the library again.'

Hermione laughed. 'You can try, but don't expect to stay in there long. Madam Pince throws you out if you so much as whisper.'

'Hmmm,' said Sirius, 'Quidditch practice it is then.'

'Bye, then,' said Hermione, retrieving another textbook from her bag with a Summoning Charm.

'Not coming?'

'Sorry, but no. I have to finish my Potions essay…wait, don't you have to?'

'Yep. So?'

Hermione sighed disapprovingly, thinking how uncannily like Harry and Ron Sirius and James were behaving. 'Oh, don't worry.'

'You coming, Moony?'

'Oh…uh...' Remus was making a quick decision; with Hermione and being by the fire, or freezing his fingers off watching a Quidditch match… 'Um…no, sorry guys. I think I'd better do that homework too.'

'We only got that homework _today_,' said Peter cantankerously.

'Right,' James began teasingly, 'you stay here…studying…with Hermione…alone…just studying…'

'Will do,' said Remus firmly, and when they were gone he rolled his eyes, but the effect was sort of ruined by the fact that his face had gone scarlet again. Hermione sniggered a little, and then smiled softly.

'Thank you for staying with me, Remus.'

'That's all right, everybody needs company – and I have to do my homework,' he said, swallowing again. He was about to say 'how far are you on the essay?', when Hermione asked him something that surprised him.

'Are you okay?'

'Err…yeah, I'm fine,' he said, puzzled.

'Are you sure? Because you know you can talk to me about anything. I won't tell anybody.'

'Umm…okay.' His head was swimming with worries. She knew. She must know.

There was a small silence.

'You know.'

'Know what?'

'I know you know.' He looked at her, trying to persuade her to tell him that she knew and how she knew. She was looking at the floor.

Hermione sighed, looking up into his eyes. 'All right, then. I know about your lycanthropy.'

'How? How do you know? Who told you?'

'Nobody told me. I figured it out. But don't worry – I won't tell anyone.'

He still looked horrified. She wanted to comfort him, but didn't really know what to do. She looked awkwardly at him for a second, before gingerly reaching out and laying her hand on his shoulder, with the words, 'I promise.'

Sparks of electricity were shooting through the shoulder she was touching and electrifying the rest of his body. He said nothing.

Hermione mistook his speechlessness for something different, however.

'Look, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything,' she spluttered lamely, hastily withdrawing her hand from his shoulder, packing her books in her bag and darting off with alarming speed.

Remus sat there alone, and looking surprised. Delightedly surprised. For once, all thoughts of werewolves and full moons slipped out of his head, and the fact that she knew his greatest secret was forgotten. With the buzzing of laughter and conversation in the common room, and the occasional 'bang' of a group of friends playing Exploding Snap, his brain seemed to calculate something that it had been working on for quite a long time now.

Maybe he did like Hermione.

Just a little bit.

**Like it? Please review and say so! Constructive criticism is also very welcome. Also, I was thinking about what to do for the first kiss, but I'm a bit stuck on how to put it. Little kiss, snog, or make-out? Detailed or mysterious? You tell me!**

**Full moon tomorrow at 1:17am! Look out for Remus and Fenrir!**


	5. Decisions, Decisions

**Well, howdy there, strangers (: And before you start, yes I do know that I haven't updated another chapter in little less than a year… but yeah, I guess I just lost the thread, and I've had things on my mind. I apologize fully; I am truly an awful writer. But my promise to you, to make up for this atrocious atrocity, is that I will finish this story (as I have it all mapped out, and a fairly good idea of where it's going) and update chapters no longer than a two-week gap. **

**Thanks. Just thanks, to everybody who read this, reviewed it, or whatever. Well, here we go.**

**And I'm sorry if this chapter's a little dull, it ****will**** pick up, and ****won't ****turn out how you would expect it to... and the kiss is in progress, guys : And I may also be trying to wheedle another ship in on this one… see if you can guess (:**

Remus Lupin lay on his bed facing the white painted ceiling, dwelling on his thoughts of what had happened over the past few weeks.

Just yesterday Prongs and Padfoot had bewitched a bottle of 'Easy Grease Removal' shampoo to empty it's contents onto an unsuspecting Severus Snape's head (which was rather greasy, Remus had to admit) as he turned the corner to enter the Slytherin common room in the dungeons. Whilst they did this, they had been under Prongs's Invisibility Cloak, and Remus, unfortunately, had not – and his simple mistake of being in then wrong place at the wrong time (as he had been meaning to collect and O.W.L. level textbook from his Potions class) had cost him a detention. You see, Remus hadn't wanted another detention on the list of detentions that the others had caused him to receive. So, of course, he had been slightly miffed with his fellow Marauders for the past 40-ish hours, and, even though Padfoot had threatened to kiss his feet, would not accept their apology. Well, their definition of accepting their apology was for him to willingly let them copy his History of Magic notes, which he wasn't going to do.

Hermione refused to, as well, which put him in a lighter mood, and made him furtively hope that she was doing it for him and not just because she disapproved of their effort in Professor Binns's.

Another thought that had not left his mind for a period of mofre than an hour was about what Hermione had spoken to him about on Wednesday. He was not quite sure what made it so memorable, the way she had confessed that she was aware of his most secretive secret, or promising so sincerely not to tell anyone that she had activated another secret in his head.

He wasn't sure what situation of the thought of Hermione he had been daydreaming on or reflecting on the most – the bitter anxiety of if she was going to blab about what she knew about him, and if he really knew her at all and could trust her and rely on her to feign ignorance, or being with Hermione, not just as friends, but her holding her hand, going to Hogsmeade with her, just the two of them, in that soppy teashop Sirius had invited him into for a joke, and who knows – maybe even _kissing _her.

Remus became aware of the fact that he was sighing, wistfully and also rather loudly too, and glanced over at the clock. Half past six. He was safe. Nobody could awaken his roommates at this time; even if they tossed ten gallons of ice-cold water onto their heads, or if Remus sang the Muggle song 'Hit me Baby One More Time' into a megaphone in their ears (and he considered himself to be a pretty much frightening singer).

He rolled over in the bed, kicking off the sheets and mulling over that Wednesday with Hermione once more and wondering whether subtly avoiding her if 'subtly' was even a suitable adverb for the verb 'avoiding') was the right thing to be doing. In fact, he was so caught up in his trivial thoughts that he failed to notice the pair of observant, lively silver eyes watching him from opposite the room. As soon as he did, however, he fumbled for this bedsheets, yanking them up to his neck swiftly, trying to conceal his faded, too-small pyjamas. His own blue eyes stared into the grey ones for over two minutes. Sirius did not seem to want to be the one to begin the conversation.

"Why are you awake?" Remus said faintly.

"Things on my mind," Sirius replied, somewhat uncomfortably.

"Me too," Remus admitted.

There was another silence.

"I'm sorry," said Sirius suddenly, sounding extremely earnest. Remus assured he was talking about the shampoo-Cloak-detention incident.

"I know," said Remus in a reedy voice. "You even threatened to kiss my feet. But I am _not_ giving you my History of Magic notes –"

"I'm not talking about the notes. I'm just apologising. Please forgive me, Moony," he said, blinking, in a whiny voice, sounding less and less serious by the moment.

Remus frowned, and then shrugged. "I know you're Sirius, Sirius."

Out of the blue, it seemed, Sirius grinned. "Okay, okay, that truly terrible pin has brought me out of my only sensible mode. I don't know why I bother with you people." He shook his head mockingly. "I think it's time to wake the others up, don't you?" This time, Sirius's grin became wider and more mischievous, and he squinted to read the clock by Remus's bedside.

"Quarter past seven…hmm…late enough." And without warning he stood up, quick as a flash, and leapt ungracefully from his four-poster and landed, with an interesting 'boing'-ing noise on James's, and the cheerful shout of "MORING, PRONGSIE!" echoed throughout the dormitory.

* * *

The four boys traipsed down to The Three Broomsticks, the November wind scalding their faces, and their red-and-yellow-striped Gryffindor scarves were coiled protectively around their necks.

James pushed on the door lightly and it swung open obediently with a faint creaking noise and Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs entered the usually crowded pub and took four seats by the window exactly where they always did every time they came there, right by the window in the far corner. The young waitress sauntered over to them.

"Four Butterbeers," Sirius said without hesitation, following the request with a wink. She flounced away, seemingly flustered. He turned to Remus. "Well?" he said, "you have something to tell us?"

Remus blinked, then nodded his head slowly. "Hermione…"

"You dragged us out here to tell us about _Hermione_?" said James impatiently; taking a staggered sip from one of the Butterbeers the waitress had hurriedly brought over to the foursome.

"You always tell us about Lily," Peter piped up. "You take us places to tell us about her. You make us create plans to help you get her…they never work though…"

James sent Peter a glare that said more than words, and he went pink and trailed off in what he was saying.

"I didn't _drag _you out here," Remus protested. "I suggested it. Now, let me get on with what I'm saying." He looked around. Nobody particularly looked as if they were about to interrupt. He cleared his throat. "Well… right, basically… urrm… Hermione… she knows… she knows about… er… my…."

"Furry little problem?" offered James helpfully. Remus smiled faintly.

"Yes. And I have a feeling she knows about the other stuff too."

"Other stuff?" said Sirius darkly. "You mean, the Animagi… and the Cloak?"

"Maybe," said Remus. "I mean, she never asks us where we go, does she?"

"Maybe she doesn't care," Sirius said abruptly.

"Maybe she's not nosy," added James.

"Well, she knows about my lycanthropy, and that's a danger on it's own."

"What if she tells?" Peter squeaked.

"Well, we could bribe her into being quiet," Sirius said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Remus raised one of his own. "By bribe, I take it you mean blackmail?"

Sirius grinned again, mischievously.

"She seems nice," said Peter earnestly. "I don't think she'd tell. We need more help at the full moons, don't we? And she's clever. We could get her to do an Unbreakable Vow not to tell, and then become an Animagus…" Peter continued to get carried away with himself.

James and Remus blinked.

"We're fine on our own," snapped Sirius.

"No!" protested Remus instantly, flapping his hands around in a flurry. "We… she can't… I mean, we barely _know_ her…"

Sirius jumped in to agree with him. "We're not sure if we can trust her…"

"….SO humiliating!"

In the midst of the squabbling, Peter and James exchanged knowing looks. James looked back at them and held a firm hand up in front of his face. They fell silent immediately, and looked at James expectantly.

"Peter, my friend," James drawled, rather enjoying his friends' rapt attention, "I think you may have quite an idea there."

* * *

Remus was pacing around the dormitory, muttering fast and fierce words to himself, whilst Peter struggled over some Charms homework and Sirius sulkily skulked in a dark corner of he room, gazing into nothingness.

Things with the Marauders had pretty much been exactly like that for the past two days.

Suddenly, the door was slammed open, and James charged in, carrying secret, sneaky mugfulls of Firewhisky, messily slopping it on the carpet as he burst in. The two (reasonably) active boys' heads snapped up; even Sirius's lonely irises wandered in some direction.

"Here we are, boys," James announced proudly, setting the containers of drink down on a coffee table with a clank. "Drink up – we have a big day ahead of us, tomorrow." He turned to Remus, who had seated himself on the right-hand side of James, and said, "right. You know what to say, Remmy? You already know my opinion on the matter – I think _you_ should ask her, because she likes you the most, and, besides, you like her." James gave him a 'winning smile', and, although he had half a mind to protest, Remus nodded slightly unsurely.

James cast a glance over at Sirius, ho had gone back to his air-gazing. "Do cheer up, Padfoot, old chap," he called in a mock old-British accent, attempting another 'winning smile', "this can only be for the best."

**Ahhhh.**

**This must be long, because you have no idea how long it took me to type that out, AND I can touch-type.**

**Anyway, as I always say, con crit and opinions are adored and cherished by this bad fanfic author. I may even give you all a special mention in my next chapter (:**

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**Click it.**

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